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Thursday, 5 February 2015

February Is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

A young woman terrified by a boyfriend who had
recently become violent thought she had nowhere to turn for help.
Feeling alone and afraid to break up with him, she finally reached out
to a trained peer advocate at loveisrespect
to find out what to do. The compassionate expert helped the teen create
a plan to safely exit the relationship when she was ready. She showed
the teen the importance of letting people at home know what was going on
and guided the young woman on how to initiate a conversation with her
mother about the abuse. Before ending the conversation with the
advocate, the teen felt empowered and was on her way to having an honest
discussion with her mom. Every day, 365 days a year, peer advocates at
loveisrespect talk, text and chat online with young adults who are
seeking help with unhealthy, verbally abusive and physically violent
relationships.

Studies show one in three teens in the United States will experience physical abuse from a dating partner. During 2014, advocates at loveisrespect, a project of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and Break the Cycle,
received 85,261 calls, texts and online chats for help with dating
abuse. A record 2.1 million unique visitors turned to loveisrespect.org
for information about healthy versus unhealthy relationships.

During
February, Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM), loveisrespect
advocates, staff and sponsors are inviting teens, parents, educators and
anyone interested in learning more about the prevention and end of teen
dating abuse to participate in a national conversation about the issue.
loveisrespect will post informative blogs about teen dating violence on
its website, loveisrespect.org, host numerous Twitter chats using #LIRAsks and offer relationship tips on the loveisrespect Facebook page.

loveisrespect
advocates hope that those affected by unhealthy relationships seek to
better understand the problem that affects so many in the U.S. today,
regardless of gender, income, ethnicity or education. The key to abuse
prevention is education including understanding the red flags that
indicate a relationship could become unhealthy. It takes a community
effort and open dialogue among teens and those who care about them to
end teen dating violence.

The
following teen dating violence experts representing loveisrespect are
available to participate in media interviews during TDVAM:

loveisrespect
is the ultimate resource to engage, educate and empower youth to
prevent and end dating abuse. It is a project of Break the Cycle and
the National Domestic Violence Hotline where highly trained peer
advocates offer free phone, text and chat services to young people
24/7/365. Teens and young adults can find help and information about
dating abuse and healthy versus unhealthy relationships through this
national resource by ¹texting "loveis" to 22522 or calling 1-866-331-9474 or visiting loveisrespect.org.
A National Youth Advisory Board guides its efforts by providing input
on loveisrespect.org, writing blogs for the site, hosting events to
raise awareness across the country and generally empowering other young
people to take action. To learn more, visit www.loveisrespect.org.

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